


Suffocate

by seekingsquake



Series: Drunk on Love [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Brief Sexual Content, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Everyone's Drunk, F/M, Gen, Tony Stark Has A Heart, brief sexual choking, dysfunctional romantic relationship, hints of Bruce Banner's sad backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 13:20:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4608282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekingsquake/pseuds/seekingsquake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were drowning even before the accident, but there's nothing Tony can do about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suffocate

**Author's Note:**

> A precursor to The Background and Drive, but all can be read as standalones.
> 
> All characters are property of Marvel. I don't own a thing.  
> Please do not repost or reupload this piece anywhere without consent. If you ask, I'm sure we can work something out :]

“Take it,” she tells him, her voice breathy and her eyes glazed. She’s slurring but still managing to utterly dominate him, her hand tight around his throat and her thighs tight around his hips as she grinds down on him in the back seat of the car. “Fuckin’ take it, c’mon, take me.”

He slips his hands up her thighs under her skirt, lets his fingers dip under the damp fabric of her panties, and gasps raggedly for breath as the hand around his throat squeezes just a little tighter. They’ve fucked hard enough to steam up the windows and rock the car, but he doesn’t think he has the energy for that tonight. He might be able to let her ride him though, if she lets him breathe just a little more.

Before it can get that far there’s a banging on the roof of the car, and Betty shrieks before she rolls down the window, still grinding her hips against him, and shouting, “Tony you motherfucker we’re busy in here!”

Never let it be said that Tony Stark is easily daunted. He pokes his head in the window, gets right up in Betty’s face, and looks her dead in the eye as he says, “You’re supremely fucked up right now.” Then he turns his attention to Bruce. “Hey Buddy, look at me for a sec.”

Bruce can’t really turn his head too much because of the vice grip Betty’s got on his neck, but he manages to flick his gaze over and meet Tony’s eyes.

Tony sighs. “Yup, okay, I think you’ve both had enough.” He jerks the door open and pulls Betty out of the car. She stumbles a bit, tries to adjust the set of her skirt but is too drunk to manage it successfully, and then staggers off toward the cabin, shouting to Pepper about more wine. Tony gets into the car and slumps over beside Bruce. He’s pretty drunk himself, otherwise he never would have interrupted like that. “You okay, Big Guy?”

Now that Betty isn’t there, isn’t grounding him with her weight, he’s not actually sure. His eyes itch suspiciously and his head feels kind of fuzzy. He knows that he’s drunk too much and not eaten enough to have any chance of holding it well. “Ionno.” His voice sounds raspy even to himself, and he flinches at the glare Tony levels him with.

“You hate this,” he accuses. “I don’t know why you do this.”

“I wanna keep up with ‘er,” Bruce mumbles, but the itch in his eyes has turned into more of a sting and God, he’s not going to cry just because he’s a little drunk and his best friend is mad at him and his girlfriend might maybe be making out with someone else in the kitchen.

“You don’t have to though,” Tony says. “I can keep an eye on her.”

Before he can stop himself or even think of why it might be a bad idea, Bruce replies with, “That’s what I’m scared of.” Then he promptly turns, leans out the still open car door, and throws up on the gravel. And now he’s crying. Great.

Tony just rubs Bruce’s back as he hangs his head miserably. “I wouldn’t fuck your girl, dude. I wouldn’t do that to you, I wouldn’t do that to Pep, and I don’t even like Betty that much.” He’s not really upset by the implications of Bruce’s statement because he’s seen the way that Betty looks at, well, _everyone_ , and there was that one time that he fucked Rhodey’s ex just shortly after they broke up. He’d been drunk then, and the only time he and Betty aren’t glaring at each other is when they’re plastered and laughing about the same thing. So he gets it. If he were sober maybe it’d hurt, and if Bruce was sober he wouldn’t have said it, so they’re even.

“I know that. Like, I know that, but sometimes I don’t _feel_  like I know that, y’know? So I just. I come around with her so that when she inevitably gets horny drunk she’ll fuck me instead of some other person.” There’s a pause, and then very quietly Bruce says, “She likes it better when we’re both wasted, anyway.”

Tony’s not sure he’d go so far as to say that his best friend is in an abusive relationship, but he’s not so sure that he wouldn’t say it, either. Bruce is messed up about Betty just as often as he’s happy about her, and Betty always seems like she’s a little pissed off. It’s definitely a weird sort of dynamic, not a super good thing, but Bruce is usually pretty tight lipped so it’s tough to get a real accurate read of the situation. “She thinks you’re bad in the sack?”

“She thinks I think too much. Wants me to focus on her more.”

Tony snorts. “She’s greedy.”

Bruce shrugs. “I guess. She never got to have stuff growing up though.”

“Doesn’t mean she can just take whatever the fuck she wants now, though.”

They don’t talk for a little while after that. Tony’s phone beeps at one point, and he shoots a half incoherent text to Pep to let her know that he’s with Bruce and that they’re both okay. A few moments after that, he pulls Bruce against his side.

Bruce just goes with the movement, lets his head fall to Tony’s shoulder, and suddenly it’s like they’re nineteen all over again. “She loves me,” Bruce whispers. “Who am I to say that’s not good enough?”

It’s actually kind of sick. Tony wants to say _your dad loved your mom and look at what happened_. He wants to say _your aunt and uncle loved you and look what good that did_. He wants to say _but does she though?_  But he doesn’t say anything. He lets his arm feel heavy around Bruce’s shoulder and he thinks _I love you better than her_  and he doesn’t even know what he means by that so it’s good he managed to not say it out loud. Instead he says, “If Pep loved me like that, I don’t think it’d be enough.”

Bruce just snorts. “Not everyone can be perfect like Pepper.”

It’s true, and usually Tony would agree, but right now he keeps quiet because Bruce deserves someone who’s perfect like Pep, too. After everything, Bruce deserves a love that’s infinitely better than ‘maybe not abusive’.

Some time later Betty staggers back to the car. She almost slips in Bruce’s vomit, and she must be a whole lot drunker than before because she doesn’t even give a shit, and she doesn’t make a fuss about the two men cuddling in the back of her car. She just climbs into Bruce’s lap, maneuvers his arms so that they’re wrapped around her, and whispers in his ear, “Take me home so I can fuck you on the balcony. You really liked that last time.” It’s not a quiet whisper. Tony exits out the other back door and watches as Bruce fumbles around for a minute.

“Babe I need to call a cab.”

“But I want to leave right nooooow.”

“Betty, Babe, I can’t drive like this.”

Tony almost snorts when she says, “I’ll drive,” but instead he just says, “Pep’s got both your keys. I’ll call you a cab. Keep your clothes on until you get home.” He makes the call and then wanders up the drive to the cabin, but instead of rejoining the party inside he just hovers on the deck. He watches Bruce’s car rock slightly even though both back doors are still flung wide open, and he can almost hear Betty’s voice over the music from inside. He can’t tell if they’re fighting or fucking, but knowing them it’s one of the two. He and Pepper fight a lot sometimes, but he hasn’t known any couple to argue as often as Bruce and Betty do. He knows they try not to, that they both try really hard to get along and have regular date nights and Betty even took a class on learning healthy communication techniques, but that knowledge almost makes the fighting worse because they still have a hard time not doing it. And Bruce doesn’t fight back often, mostly just lets Betty yell at him until she quits, but when he _does_  fight back it feels like the earth is going to fall out from under everybody’s feet.

But when the cab pulls up and they get out of the car, Bruce is laughing and Betty is trying to yank down her skirt so hopefully they’ll make it until tomorrow without digging into the painful parts of each other.

He watches them get into the cab, watches the cab pull away, and then at the very last second he hears Bruce’s voice shout, “Later, asshole!” out the window.

Tony doesn’t know how Bruce knew he was still standing there, but he’s glad that he did. Tony’s been watching out for Bruce since high school, and just because they both have girlfriends doesn’t mean that that’s changed any. He just wishes that he could do a better job of it, since Betty apparently isn’t.


End file.
